Wherefore art thou, L?
by ChocoPath
Summary: Three friends, three secret lifes shared by the aims of the destiny. Different worries and personalities that trouble them. They are seeking a dream with no evidence that confirm its existance...
1. Justice

**JUSTICE**

The death... One and the only meeting you have to care about... Every second, a person must die, and this generates a perfect balance that mantains the nature and the whole world.

Lots of people live terrified, and with the only hope of living forever... They think of a perfect world... Of utopic justice and infinite privileges. They are willing to have it, leaving aside all the little things and the happy moments that are giving a sweet taste to this life.

Every especies has a function in this world. If all the creatures of one of them disappear, everybody will die... From the little ant to the killer-whale: they will all be dead, and nothing will be left. No plants, nor animal or any form of life.

Did you knew that, if the humans disappear from the earth, with all that implies its disappeareance, no other creatures will be extincted? The world would go back to its original balance... All the achievements of the humankind would disappear, and with them, all the memories of what sometime was called "civilization."

It is hard to believe... The most powerful being is the one that nobody would need... But it depends of all other especies for its existance... It's indeed a curious fact: the nature's destroyer doesn't provide sufficient reasons for the world to depend on him...

That is the real justice.


	2. Dreamer

**DREAMER**

Jane's nickname was Nezumi.

She was small, brunette and with her eyes always hidden behind a thick bangs that made her feel really proud. She was not stylish with her clothing (Even she had her own style, different from the other girls) and her favourite music genre was heavy metal.

She hated every dress and every skirt; it was impossible to see her wearing such a thing, and her clothes were usually dark. She was a dreamer, hidding her real personality under a fake realism that sometimes was changing her from optimistic to pesimistic so rapidly that gave her the image of a moody girl.

She had a lot of hobbies, like drawing and painting. But in the truth, she was more interested on the research.

She was used to learn about every kind of mysteries, always working on her computer and spending hour after hour seeking for some breaking news of everything that would seem weird or mysterious to her.

One of her secrets was collecting the reports of the casas solved by the person that she most admired in the world. The great detective, L.

She was always looking up to him and her desire was to be like him. That was probably the reason why she loved the research at those levels.

She felt somehow connected to L. She wanted him to know that she was there, that she could be an important person too... And who knows? Maybe he'd feel curious about her and decides to meet her.

One of her best friends was called Irina, and as Nezumi, she enjoyed to read the casebooks of the detective. She was younger; she only had sixteen years old, but she was really sweet: blue eyed and always wearing pastel colours on her dressing. She had dark-blond/light-brown, curly and large hair, also having a bangs to cover her forehead.

They both studied in the same high school, although Nezumi was on the last year and Irina was some years beneath her. They would have never met if Alice hadn't invited both of them to one of her parties.

That's right, they did have a friend in common: she was Alice Radler, a weird and introspective girl with a crazy mind. She was a student of an art school and was considered a really kind and clever girl among all the social groups in which she had been.

She had hip long, black hair and wasn't stylish at all, but she indeed had a lot of friends and contacts. Her restless and creative personality were letting her stay awake during large hours in the night and then enjoy the classes as no one would have ever enjoyed them.

She was a mystery freak, even more than her friends. She had mountains of books starred by Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Ellery Queen among others. She wanted to be a great author, a mystery writer with the same fame as her favourite writers.

Although she loved mysteries, she hated all the references to L as "the greatest detective in the whole world," because she didn't wanted to accept that somebody would have been capable of solving the huge ammount of cases (Actually, the quantity was over 3,000) L had allegedly solved on his own.

So, Nezumi was the dreamer type, Irina was the sweet one and Alice was the creative one. I would have lied if I'd said that they were much more similar: as three good friends, they were probably unbeatable, showing their true colours without any fears, but on their own, their differences were remarcable.

You'd probably be thinking "Why were they friends?"

As a group, Nezumi was taking the role of the cautious, always taking care of Alice and Irina, Irina was often the talkative, while Alice was the one who made plans and decided what to do, aking her friends whether they wanted to go on a concert, to go shopping, to see a film...

But between Jane and Irina there was a secret hidden from Alice; as they both were L's fans, they would keep on hanging out to read his casebooks together.

Their favourite published case, was the well-known Kira's mystery.


	3. November

Remember, remember, the fifth of November...

Nezumi was bothered that morning by this repetitive song that was controlling all the television channels. The Bonfire Night was going to celebrate during the night, even on that year people wouldn't have done nothing special if the gobernment hadn't set up a huge ammount of festivals all along Britain. On her place, there was going to be a market and a rock concert.

But Jane indeed hated that kind of celebrations. She founded them boring and unnecesary, although she was supposed to hang out with her friends later that day.

She knew that the fireworks were going to be banging and exploding everywhere, and that the disgusting smell of the gun powder was going to spread all along the streets. She hated them, she really hated them.

But on her thinking, she received a phone call. She looked at her mobile phone with a serious lack of interest. She saw the incoming call of Alice Radler and felt rather dissapointed.

"Hey, Alice." she claimed while answering at the phone.

"Today we have a Party!" shouted Alice "Hey, Jane. We don't have class tomorrow. Are you going to join us?"

"Forget about it" said Nezumi in her bad humour "you know: I don't like gun powder, I can't stand fireworks and I ain't good at noisy places."

"You're really boring when you complain like that" argued Alice upset with her friend "You didn't wanted to come to Hallowe'en's party, you didn't wanted to come to the first of November... You're always giving excuses and that is really annoying!"

"I don't see a point in going anyway" answered Nezumi "sorry, Al..."

"Why are you telling me this stuff in the day of the event?" shouted Alice again "Do you know what I've done to prepare this party?"

"Give me a break, Alice" continued Nezumi "I don't want to leave my house today..."

"Now, you're going to prepare yourself! If you don't come to the party, I'll be really madly upset with you!"

Alice hanged the phone. She took a look at the people at the house. Irina seemed a bit confused, as the others.

"Definetly, she will come" assured Alice "She may to. Remember what day is today."

Nezumi knew it too. She didn't wanted to go out on that very day because of it.

It was her twentieth birthday.

But Jane was angry with Alice. She hadn't received a "happy birthday" message during the day, the only messages she founded on her whatsapp were her family's ones.

"Damn it! Alice always just do what she wants! She never thinks about others' feelings."

And she was feeling in that moment completely lonely. Her parents and her sister were visiting her grandparents during the weekend, and she stayed at home because she thought that she was going to go out with her friends and have a good time during her birthday...

Meanwhile, in Alice's home -a well situated flat in the center of the city- everyone were preparing the party as quick as they could. Irina and Alice had asked some of Jane's closest friends to come to the party so they could make a surprising party to her friend.

"Hey, Alice" said one of the guests "I forgot my present at home... Should I go there to take it?"

"Oh... Henri, if you want to go, now is the moment. Nezumi is supposed to come here in an hour..."

"Ok. What is your present?" he asked with a curious face.

Alice giggled just before answering that it was a secret with a mischievous smile.

Henri left the building and ran to his house. Irina saw and heared all the conversation between them, so she ran near Alice and smiled sweetly, staring just in front of her.

"Irina, move on..."

"What is the top secret present you are going to give her?"

"Sorry, a secret is a secret. I shall not tell anyone."

"Oh, c'mon, Alice! I wanted to know!"

"Ok... You'll know..."

Irina felt excited for a few seconds. Alice laughed.

"When she has opened it."

"Ag, Alice, you're a bad girl! I really want to know!"

"I've just told you: it's a secret. I can't tell you."

"Can you give me a hint, at least?"

Alice kept quiet for a few seconds, just thinking in a hint that would never get her to know what was that. She soon thought of a game.

"My secret lays on your secret of your beloved secret."

"What was that?" asked Irina loudly and confused "That is not a hint, that's a trick!"

"Sorry, I have things to do!"

Alice avoided Irina and continued working on the preparations.

Nezumi was probably the only one who didn't know the real intentions of Alice. Even her parents knew about it, so they went precisely that day in order to make her more confident to go to Alice's party.

Jane got out of the appartment fourty minutes after Alice's call. She soon got sick smelling the gun powder, and started to walk. On the way, she was cursing Alice and depressing herself, thinking on scolding her friends when she has the chance.

How could everybody have forgotten such an important day? Maybe they were too much excited with the idea of the best Guy Fawkes' party ever.

She soon arrived at Alice's building. She rang the bell and waited for a few seconds, Alice opened the door without asking who was it.

Nezumi got into the block and waited for the elevator, as her friend lived in the fifth floor. Then she knocked on the door and Alice opened it.

"Damn it, Nezumi! You are pretty late!"

"Whatever" answered Jane.

"Hey, are you mad?" asked her friend, acting innocently.

"Am I? Of course I am mad! How did you manage to forget the day?"

"The day? I don't know what are you talking about..."

"Nevermind. Can I come in?" Jane looked troubled and extremely upset. Alice thought that was funny.

When Nezumi entered the house, she found herself into the darkness. All the lights were off and that was weird.

"Where is that stupid party?" inquired Jane touching the walls, seeking a switch "Why don't you at least turn the lights on?"

When she gave the light, she found all her friends waiting there, and with a "Happy birthday" a lot of emotions run through her body. _I may not cry, I may not cry_, she said to herself.

On the party there were no bonfires, and the delicious smell of the Jacked potatoes Alice cooked on her own was watering her mouth. She was blaming herself for the thoughts she had while coming to the party.

They had a great time, as she planned when she decided to stay in the city... And finally, her friends gave her the presents.

Everybody said that Alice should be giving hers in first place, but she managed to make Nezumi choose the present she was going to open from a mountain of presents. Then, all was given up to the luck.

Her first one was an emo-looking dress. Her face was quite funny, but trying to show as glad as she could, because she would never wear a dress unless it was a matter of life and death. Although, she acted very pleased and gave a hug to Meredith, the emo girl who bought her the dress.

Up to fifteen presents were given, including Irina's one, a pair of military boots chosen in the sixth place, and the last present was the only one left.

"How did Alice manage to make her choose hers at last?" inquired Irina quite surprised.

"Ah... But that's not Alice's" said someone.

Everybody stared at Henri, the one who said that. He was a bit nervous, but finally he explained:

"That's mine! That's mine!"

Then everybody turned to look at Alice. She smiled innocently and giggled.

"It was just a trick. My present wasn't with the others'."

Nezumi didn't pay any attention to the people who was staring at Alice with intimidating faces. She opened the box and found a necklace with an L on it.

"Ahhh" she cryed "I love it, Henri! It's L's special fans' necklace! How could you...?"

Alice stayed aside for a few seconds, while Nezumi was thanking Henri for his gift. She went to her bedroom and opened one of the closets, where Jane's present was laying.

She returned to the living room with everybody, she approximated to Jane and handed her present to the other girl. Nezumi looked pretty confused.

"Wow, it's heavy" she said.

"Just open it. You dont know how much time I've been looking for that troublesome present."

"Heh... It wasn't necessary" answered Jane and broke the envelope of the gift to discover a book with black covers and a white silver title "Death note... What is this?"

"I'm dissapointed" whispered Alice "That is a book."

"I see that it is a book... But why is so an special book? Why have you been searching it for so long?"

Alice was angering.

"Forget about it. Just forgive me for giving you such a useless thing. Nevermind... Shall we continue with the party?"

Firstly, Nezumi thought it was a joke from her friend, but that reaction told her the book she was holding on his hands wasn't a normal book.

With that thoughts, she opened the book on the first page and read the only sentence that was in the entire page:

"This is the book with all the information, details and secrets of the Kira case, solved by the great detective L and his successors, that were hidden to the media and the public opinion."

And she felt a warm feeling deep in her heart. She would have never knew about the existance of that book unless Alice have given it to her.

So Nezumi was super happy.


	4. Monster

**MONSTER**

Jane couldn't sleep at all that night.

She decided to read the book in the very moment she arrived her home. She took some snacks from the kitchen and layed down on her bed, while reading and eating some chips. The story soon hooked her and drove the girl to the japanese scenery.

She soon met the main character; Light, the one who thought he was good… The one who owned the evil note that had the power of taking others' lifes. At first, she felt quite identified with the young man… But she soon found herself troubled with the idea of killing people to punish for their sins.

She started to think a lot about the philosophy hidden behind those pages. "To kill or not to kill?" she said to herself "What would I do?"

After some hours, she finally met L –the absolutely wonderful man who faced the danger Kira represented- and she liked him even more than she used to… Although, Light was also an important character.

The time passed and she read with her own eyes something that catched her interest immediately. Those words were given by L during one of his computer meetings with _The Wammy's house_'s students:

"_There are many types of monsters in this world: monsters who will not show themselves and who cause trouble; monsters who abduct children; monsters who devour dreams, monsters who suck blood and… monsters who always tell lies. Lying monsters are a real nuisance, they are much more cunning than other monsters. They pose as humans, even though they have no understanding of the human heart. They eat, even though they've never experienced hunger, they study even though they have no interest in academics… They seek friendship, even though they do not know how to love. If I were to encounter such a monster, I would likely be eaten by it… Because in truth, I am the monster…"_

After reading those words, Jane layed on her bed and stayed during five minutes, keeping the open book against her chest and looking at the wall, in an introspective ritual. She always admired L, but that words, in fact, sounded like if they were expressing a huge loneliness.

If the book was telling the truth, L must have been feeling like that for a long time. He was known as the computer detective, even when he was respected as the best detective in the whole world. Being always solving cases and keeping your identity as a secret would make someone feel really lonely and depressed.

Those words indeed touched her. She soon started to compare herself with the monster L was describing as himself. She read it many times in a row and took note of it with a notebook. She wanted to remember those words for all the eternity.

Repeating herself those words made her feel rather depressed after a while. Perhaps the same loneliness L was experiencing was troubling her in an empathic way. She wanted to speak to somebody about those feelings, but she didn't know who.

And then, she had the weird thoughts…

"If I ever meet L, I would make sure to let him know who he really is. L is said to be the best detective in the whole world, he has been compared sometimes to the real idea of justice and he is well-known as the defender of the truth… But in fact, he would still feel as a monster, as the same monster I am…"

She continued reading, even when she was yawning and it were five o'clock in the morning. Then, she arrived to the moment… When he passed away.

At first, she couldn't believe it. But she realized that the storyteller indeed was talking about L's death... There was the entire description of the moment, and the way the writer continued the book made her assure thar L was, irrefutably, dead.

She couldn't afford the pain in her chest and closed the book violently. She started to cry, hugging her own knees, completely depressed. Even when she didn't knew if the character was real or not, she was feeling that way for the same reason that made her think about the words L used to define the monster.

And the alarm of her mobile phone started to rang, she looked at it, with no intention of turning it off. She didn't wanted to continue reading, so she hid the book in the bookshelf and then, after turning off the alarm of the mobile phone, she decided to go to sleep.

The time was six thirty in the morning.


	5. Bedtime

**BEDTIME**

Irina went to Jane's house at twelve o'clock in the morning, as they were supposed to meet with Alice at 12:30 and Jane's phone did not give any signal.

Irina was pretty worried about her friend, as she hadn't connected through whatsapp during the morning. When she arrived, she started to ring the bell, but there were no answer coming from the inside.

Despite of Irina's intentions, Jane was still asleep at her bedroom. She completely forgot about the meetup of the day after Guy Fawkes, and the reading during the night had her exhausted. Besides, as she knew there were no classes on that day, she wanted to be sleeping until two pm.

But Irina didn't give up, she started to call through her mobile phone, first at Nezumi's one, and then, she phoned the telephone of the house. The bell inside it rang several times, and Irina was impatient. She didn't know if Nezumi was still sleeping, as she always did during the holidays and the weekends, but if they were supposed to go with Alice on that day, being late was not an option.

She started to think, but time passed and she had no idea of how to deal with the "sleeping beauty" that was laying on her room at the highest place in the highest tower…

Irina went running to find Alice. She arrived at the place five minutes late, and Alice was the only one there.

"Hah! Here you are! I hate waiting always for you two, Irina! Where the heck is Jane?"

"Sorry, sorry!" Answered Irina suffocated "I tried so hard to wake her up, but I think she is still sleeping at her place…"

"Gosh, Jane… She is always so lazy! Let's pay her a visit."

And Irina returned, this time with Alice's company, to Nezumi's house. She tried to wake her up through the phone once more, but the plan failed again.

"You see? I think she must be there… It would be weird if she had left without waiting for me."

"Also she didn't appeared on the time… Let me see how shall we do this…"

Alice took her mobile phone and took a look at the contact list. Nezumi's sister, Anabelle, gave Alice her phone number on the purpose of preventing this sort of situations.

"Morning, Alice! How was the party?"

"Hey, Anabelle! The party was great, but you know, your beloved sister had done it again…"

"Geez… That girl never learns for good… You have the key hidden in the front garden, inside of one of the gnomes."

"Thank you, Annie."

"Make sure that she screams a lot when you wake her up! Record it and send me the video through whatsapp!"

"Got it! See ya!"

Alice hanged the phone and searched the keys inside of the gnomes. There were two with green hats and the third with a red one. The girl found what she was looking for inside the red one, pasted to the ceramic body with some celo tape, then they broke into the house.

"I didn't knew that you and Nezumi's sister were friends" admitted Irina.

"Heh, too many times here, waiting for the sleeping princess."

They got into Jane's room in silence. Alice stayed near the door and started to record the scene with her mobile phone, then whispered to her friend to wake Jane up.

Irina jumped over their friend and Jane started to scream and yelling for help. Irina fell down of the bed when Nezumi pushed her off. She looked annoyed until she realized that the ones who woke her up were Irina and Alice. The video recording ended and Alice sent it to Anabelle with a mischievous smile.

"How did you both got here inside MY BEDROM?" shouted Jane.

"I asked your sister where the keys were hidden" answered Alice, looking at the double check on the whatsapp "I sent her a video of our trick as revenge."

"What? Ag, Alice, why do you enjoy torturing me?"

"I don't know. Nowadays I do have a lot of spare time… C'mon, girl. Dress up, we're leaving in five minutes."

Nezumi looked at her phone. It was battery dead as she completely forgot to charge it during the night. The enthusiasm with the book caused the forgetting of everything else.

"Em… Girls. Can you give me seven minutes? I have to call my parents."

"Six minutes and a half" replied Alice.

"Gosh, Nezumi! The next time we won't wait a single minute for you. I swear it!" complained Alice.

"I apologize!"

"Nevermind, Nezumi" said Irina "I am sure that you have a good reason for getting overslept today."

She suddenly remembered the book she was reading until late that night.

"Girls… er… Is there something that are you scared of?" she asked.

"Something we are scared of?" questioned Irina.

"For what purpose do you want to know that?" inquired Alice.

"I don't have a purpose… It is just that… Tonight I read almost half of the book you gave me, and somewhere, L was having a meeting with some kids, and they were chatting through the computer… And someone asked this stuff and the response was a kind of philosophically monologue about monsters and human feelings. I felt rather depressed while reading it and I wondered what would be your opinion…"

"Oh, I am afraid of high places" said Irina innocently.

"I think this is far deeper that those kinds of thoughts, Irina" said Alice "Well, Nezumi… If you ask me, I've not read the book. I knew from its existence through a forum on the Internet, so I can't guess what you are meaning. But, perhaps… I think I would be afraid of being lonely, or of loosing you somehow… You know, we three had painful experiences all along our lifes, and when we met, we promised to be always together, fighting against the loneliness we used to feel."

"That is the question, Alice! I felt like if… L was feeling lonely, as we felt."

The three friends stayed quiet for a while, in an uncomfortable silence that tensed the situation. They remembered the time when they didn't know each other, and the humiliation, and the abuses…

"No!" claimed Irina "now we're not the same girls! We have changed, and we are not alone anymore!"

"That's right, that's right" confirmed Alice.

"Together we're unbeatable!" assured Irina with a big smile "so, don't think about it!"

Nezumi nodded, but deep in her heart, she couldn't stop thinking about him. L. He might have felt so lonely in the world… With no friends to help him to deal with rough patches… And no one to show him the path to the light.

They had lunch in a fast food restaurant, and after that, they went to a park in the outsides of the city. It was such a big park that was almost considered a natural reserve in the middle of nowhere.

They lied down the green grass. The fresh scent of the wet land was so relaxing that Alice thought she would fall asleep if she stayed there for too long. The fountains of the park, near them, were the swimming pool of a family of ducks that quacked loudly over the voices of the children that played far away from them. The clouds were not announcing an imminent storm, instead, the fog was about to cover the whole park in the following hours. The three friends were in a pleasant silence, as a ritual to forget about the routine and the stress of the daily life.

The soft wind moved a piece of paper along the park and stopped by the obstruction of Irina's arm. When she felt the soft touch of the paper, she quaked violently and looked at it. She took it, a bit confused and saw what it was. She started to laugh and her friends opened their eyes too.

"Hey, Irina… What are you laughing at?" asked Nezumi a bit annoyed because of the interruption of her relaxing time.

"Sorry, I couldn't help. Is this piece of paper I've just discovered!"

"That's disgusting, Irina. Throw it away!" complained Alice.

"No way! It is interesting! It has our birthdays written on it!"

Both her friends took a look of the paper. It was a lottery ticket which were going to be played the following Wednesday. Nezumi laughed too, but Alice stayed serious.

"Too bad! This numbers aren't good for a lottery ticket. I guess it was a bad Lucky Dip the one which caused this failure, and the poor man who had bought it threw it away as it has no use…"

"But it's curious, isn't it?" purposed Nezumi. "It has all of our birthdays on it!"

"It is just a useless piece of paper. It's rubbish. Throw it away."

"No!" answered Irina sadly "I like it. I just want to keep it as a good-luck charm!"

"Agh. Diogenes' syndrome detected!" replied Alice madly.

On the lottery ticket/good-luck charm, the following numbers were given:

1 – 5 – 7 – 11 – 23 – 31

As the thirty-first day of January was Alice's birthday.

The twenty-third of July, Irina's one.

Finally, the fifth of November… The one you already know.


	6. Difficulties

**DIFFICULTIES**

Despite the time she got at home, Alice soon started to do her homework. On her arts school they were pretty severe with the activities the students should do at their homes, specially in subjects like "artistic drawing" or "sculpting works". She had to do some drawings with the proportion of a determined canon and after that, look for some information about the Vanguards related to the art of sculpture.

She was really busy every sunday at the same hour -it was about eight in the evening- and she even forgot taking her dinner, so her mother went to her bedroom to take the dinner to her room.

Alice's room was an absolute disaster; the walls were completely papered with hundreds of drawings -some of them were hidding more drawings- and the bookshelfs were full of books, papers and sculptures she made on her own.

The table was always busy, and this time she had the computer on, some of the materials fell down from it and were laying on the floor.

Her mother took a deep breath while seeing the room.

"Alice, my dear... This really looks like a weir... When are you going to tidy up your room?"

"But mommy!" she complained "I'm really, really busy! Look all the working I must do for tomorrow!"

"If you were a bit more organised, you wouldn't be in such a rushing up!" laughed her mother sweetly.

"This ain't funny. I am trying so hard to have excellent marks, but I don't want to stop meeting my friends... What shall I do?"

"Well, if you ask me... You should organise better your timetable. In fact, you should reorganise your entire life!"

"Hahah" laughed Alice ironically "That was really very funny. I can't help laughing..."

Alice's mother was a single mother. She used to date a man oh her youthness, but as far aa Alice knew, she was abandoned in the very moment she gave him the news about the pregnancy.

So, Alice didn't even know who her father was. They were lucky and her grandparents helped them in whatever they needed, so that her mother could finnish her studies and found a good job to maintain herself and her daughter.

They were good friends, as they had dealed with rough sittuations together during their lifes, but what was more amazing from her mother was the self-improvement ideals and that she always was smiling. Her thinking was also very positive and it was rare to see her upset, moody or even sad.

Alice's mother was extremetly strong.

"Hey, Alice. Take a break and have dinner. I am leaving the tray right here, in front of the door."

"'kay, mum. I'll take it after finishing this paragraph..."

She finished her paragraph and cleared a small space in the table for the dishes. She stared, though, in front of the monitor, looking on the Internet, on the same page where she founded the book she had given to Nezumi.

When she saw the same page forbidden in a dead link.

"What?" she said to herself "But... The book... The book was here... I saw it."

* * *

It was night.

Somewhere in the east high of the city a shadow was running, escaping from the high school, leaving a red path of the footprints of the shoes.

The scarlet footprints were coming from a room, at the end of the silent corridor.

In a complete darkness, only illuminated by the lazy light of the silver moon, the red colour was puddled everywhere, in a disgusting bloody scenery.

Beneath one of those small tables of the high school, that was exactly in the third row, in the centre line, a human body was hardly moving, stabbed to death, agonizing and trying, with his latest sight to make a dying message for someone to discover his murderer.

He soon become a corpse, in the quiet building, the crime scene that a few hours after the kill, was going to be full of young teens asking what have happened.

And, of course, the classes were going to be cancelled.

Somehow, the murderer managed to kill the victim in a very important High School for this story.

The High School where Nezumi and Irina were studying. In fact, they were supposed to arrive there at 8:30 in the morning, but they were looking forward to have a deep and long conversation about L and the book "Death Note", so that they arrived thirty minutes before the classes got started, at eight o'clock in the morning.

Irina was the class representative, and she had to open the door of the classrom before her partners came and close it up after the classes were finished. They went to get the key on the head of studies and afterwards walked through the corridors, speaking about the book.

"I couldn't continue reading the book since that!" explained Nezumi.

"Oh, Come on, Nezumi. You should be brave and finish the book."

"You are encouraging me in order to read the book as soon as possible, aren't you?"

"Yep. So, hurry up, finish the reading and lend it to me" she laughed.

When they were approaching to the classroom, Irina saw the brown footprints on the floor, she sighed mad.

"Geez... My stupid partners should have come with mud in their shoes."

"But this footprints are kinda weird... They are coming from the classroom, not into the classroom."

"They are such jerks that they had probably dirt it up on purpose..."

"Well, open the door and I'll help you on the cleaning."

Irina rushed up and opened the door. At first, she didn't saw the corpse or the blood puddles that surrounded it, but while she was cursing her partners, she saw it and a heartbreaking cry went through all the landings of the High School.

Her cry alerted Nerumi, who covered Irina's eyes with her left hand.

"Don't look" she said.

A few seconds passed and many professors and employees entered the room. When they saw Irina crying and Nezumi trying to calm her, they thought it was a misunderstunding, but Jane soon pointed at the classroom, where the corpse was lying.

And the high school became a bloody crime scene.


	7. Keys

**KEYS**

No other students entered on the High School that day. All the surroundings were a field of police cars. In addition, everybody was sent back to their respective houses as soon as they approached the building.

The only students who were left in the high were Nezumi and Irina. After the arrival of the policemen, Irina started to recover her calm, but even though the research was going to be long and complex, they wouldn't be able to leave the scenery, that was one of the againsts of being the one who found the corpse and the only witnesses known at that moment.

But something was troubling Nezumi while she was thinking on how they saw the scene for the first time. She was unsure about what it was, but extremetly sure that it had to be something with the case.

"Hello, girls. My name is Albert Sinenoc. I'm the inspector from the police office."

"Hi..." whispered Irina in a lowed and sick voice.

"This is Irina Clemence and I'm Jane Seaside. How is the research going?" asked Nezumi.

"Well... We're doing what we can. I would really appreciate your collaboration... You are the only witnesses we know."

"I'd like my friend to be left aside. She was the one who discovered the... Well... The man... And she is a bit dizzy now."

"I see. So, Jane... Would you mind coming with me for responding a couple of questions?"

Nezumi followed Mr. Albert while Irina was looking at her with her pale face that was about to start crying again. They entered a room -a special room where the bad boys were usually punished during the breaks for their bad behaviour. It was little, about a quarter of the space a normal classroom would have, with a big table on the middle surrounded by six or seven chairs. The walls, and the furniture were all signed up with pen and markers, filled with all the naughty thoughts of the ones who had ever been trapped there- where Mr. Albert and a policewoman were about to take statement of her testimony.

The policewoman had a netbook in front of her, and was sitting in the other side of the room. Jane was feeling nervous and exposed, all that she needed was to think deeper on what was wrong on the crime scene.

Maybe there was something missing? Something that should not be there?

"Don't be nervous. You are not being suspected of anything."

"I'm not nervous" lied Jane "but... What was the cause of the death?"

"We are not allowed to give you that kind of information" said the policewoman severely "just listen and answer, it's simple."

"Okay, Miss" She said uneasy.

They asked her why they were coming so early in the morning, as they were supposed to be there at eight thirty instead of at eight o'clock. She answered that Irina, her friend, was the class' representative and they were going to tidy up the classroom before the classes got started.

After a while, Albert asked Jane whether she knew the victim, and she saw the chance of looking at the crime scene to determine what was wrong with it. She indeed knew the victim, as he was a teacher of the science department, but she just answered "I need to have a close look to the victim... Because I didn't looked directly..."

Albert saw a weird performance on Jane's behaviour. He didn't wanted to ask directly in front of his pals, as he didn't had any suspicion on her, but... She was too curious. A normal teenage in her sittuation would be less motivated or even shocked, as it happened with Irina, but...

Why was Jane acting so... Naturally?

Jane approached the dead body with Mr. Albert, and she looked everywhere, but no matter how much she tried; she didn't find any suspicious object.

She just saw on the body the marks of being stabbed.

"So... Bloody" she shivered.

"Do you recognize him?" asked another policeman.

"Yes... It's a teacher here..."

She got out of the room as soon as she could when she stumbled and fell on the floor, just when she was crossing the door. She hurted her knee and looked behind herself to see what was the stupid thing that made her fell down. She saw that one of the tiles was broken and loose.

"Are you okay?" asked Irina, when she got to the place where her friend fell.

"Hm... Yep. Irina... When did that tile got broken?"

"Huh? This is weird... I haven't see that before!"

"So... Interesting!" assured Nezumi before standing up.

Sinenoc heard the opinion of the young girl and felt even more curious about her. She was looking not only natural, but also interested on the research.

He decided to ask her something in a non-official way, to guess what the girl founded.

But when he was walking to her, she jumped and hooked the top of the door and kept hanged there for a while. Every single policeman was looking at her upset and Albert Sinenoc felt embarrased.

"Jane, get down here in this very moment." ordered the inspector.

"Sorry, Mister Albert" answered the girl and she found herself again with the feet on the floor "I was just..."

"You must not behave like that. Understood? Leave this all in our hands." he said seriously.

Jane and Irina sat down on the chairs that were left on the corridor by the police officers. Jane wanted to knew who the suspects were.

"Albert" said someone running into the crime scene "with other testimonies, we've reached a conclusion..."

"What conclusion?" asked Sinenoc.

"This is a closed door crime scene. It's an impossible scene! The only key of this classroom is now in hands of that girl over there!"

Irina took my hand nervously. She trembled for a second, probably specting that she would be accused of something.

"It's okay" whispered Nezumi "I know that you are innocent."

"But the key has always been with that girl?" asked Albert looking straight at the two girls.

"Apparently not... It's usually on a strong box at the head of studies' department."

"Hmmm... Has the strong box been forced?"

"No, and the keys of the strong box are always carried by the concierge..."

"Why do you say it is an impossible scene, then?"

"The department is locked too. There are no signs of have being forced... And the key of the department... Is always with the Director of School."

Everyone got shocked. Someone needed two different keys to obtain the key that would open the classroom, two different keys that were held by different persons. As the officer said, it was impossible for a single man to commit the crime, but Nezumi knew it was a possible crime scene, and not a difficult one if it was well prepared.

And this one was prepared indeed.


	8. Intuition

**INTUITION**

Conan Doyle wrote sometime, in Sherlock Holmes' words "Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

Nezumi knew that. It was improbable find out the truth about the case, as improbable as finding a corpse in the middle of Irina's classroom. What at first was a murder case, was now a personal motive against the culprit.

But despite the information given by Nezumi, the police officers were clueless with the fact of who the culprit was.

Jane and Irina were in the confination room (the one they used previously to interrogate Jane) with Mr. Sinenoc. He was looking surprised, but respectful too.

"We have four suspects. They are the owners of the school's keys."

"Wow, this is quite interesting!" confessed Jane with exitement.

"In fact, the head of studies was a suspect too, but we have confirmed his alibi a few moments ago. I'd like you to stay apart from the research, but I know that it's quite impossible..." Jane stared at him with a mischievous smile. She was thirsty... Thirsty of the truth. "Okay, girls, but don't cause too much trouble. You are not supposed to help us."

"I want to help" said Jane.

"Jane, you've been a great observer, but from now on, we have to do the rest. I don't want you to get involved on this."

"Why? I can be helpful sometimes... And this appears to be one of those times."

"Being in a crime scene can be traumatic... However, dealing with a murderer, declaring against him and letting him see your face is dangerous!"

"I am not scared" swear Jane.

"I see... Just make sure that they won't see your faces."

Albert was pretty worried about'em. He had a bad feeling on this situation...

"Hey, Sinenoc!" called him one of the officers when he got out pf the room "who are those girls?"

"They are students here" answered the inspector kindly.

"You should let them help us. They made this look like a children's game!"

Sinenoc became angered with the officer in a sudden. The other man was looking at his superior, who was staring at him in a bad mood.

"Just kidding!" he said troubled by the boss' expression.

"Listen to me. No matter how, but from now on, you have to make sure that they won't interfere in our job."

"What? I am a policeman, not a babysitter."

"It's an order. You won't disobey your superior, will you?"

"At all" answered the other one, with a pale nervous expression on his face.

As soon as the new officer got into the room, Irina and Jane stared at him. Their curious faces soon turned into a sad gesture.

"Sinenoc doesn't want us to help, does he?"

"Just try to understand him. He don't want you to get injured." explained the policeman.

"Uh, Jane! I remembered that!" shouted Irina.

The younger girl soon whispered some stuff in her friend's ear. Nezumi drawed a new smile, filled with all the questions that were solved in that very moment.

"We must go to the crime scene" said Jane while standing up.

"No!" yelled the officer "You can't..."

"We need to check an important issue!"

"No, you needn't! Listen; this is not a game nor a mystery book, this is real life!"

"Huh? In real life WE DO KNOW what is happening here!" screamed Jane.

"What?" asked the policeman.

"The victim left a dying message... But it is too difficult to see it with foreign's eyes..."

The boy soon started thinking. If it was true, they would be able to conduct the case in a good and reliable way... But if it was not, he would be punished. What to do when you have the chance of showing up the truth, even when your job and your entire life is at risk?

"If the culprit notices it just before we get there, there's no doubt that he will get rid of it. Then, the murderer will escape from the justice for sure..."

The police officer stared at them with doubts. He was pretty sure that he was going to be in trouble, but there was somethin' in Jane's grey brown eyes that was being very honest, something that made him trust them.

"We'll go..."

Irina was left alone at the room while Nezumi was walking through the corridors with the policeman. She saw four employees arriving at the corridor where Sinenoc was waiting.

Simon Belfast was the students' representative. He was eighteen (a senior) and was a very good looking boy, popular and sportive. He was the kind of teen that had a huge fan club in the school... What was he doing there? Was he a... Suspect?

The head of the cleaning department was there too. Nezumi remembered that she was called Agatha Remer. On her surrounder fifty years she seemed to be disturbed with every single thing in there. No matter how, Nezumi saw that woman always complaining about something. She was wearing a brown cotton dress with leggings and high hills -a really eccentric woman, despite of her career.

On the other side, there were the director and the vicedirector of the centre. The director, Kevin York, was a detemined fat guy with a red and greasy skin. He was old, but her eyes were greedy as no other eyes could be, while the vice director was his complete antithesis; a pale, skinny and sick-looking man. They both wore a tuxedo, but none of them looked well on it.

The policeman and the girl entered the classroom carefully as they wanted not to be seen by anyone. Three officers were in the room in that very moment, when they saw them, they stopped what they were doing.

"You were supposed to be in the confination room" said the same woman that was in the room when Sinenoc was interrogating Jane.

"But the girls just remembered something" he said.

"I see." she answered, then looked at Nezumi and whispered "You indeed look really clever... You know what labour intrusion is?"

Jane kept quiet for a few seconds. She felt unsecure and exposed, so she ducked down.

"Sorry, ma'am..."

"Ok. Nevermind. I don't understand why Sinenoc doesn't let you collaborate. I'd prefer this case to be solved as quickly as possible."

"Sure!" answered Jane "We have noticed that the victim left a dying message before he died... And it is there!"

The rows of desks in the classroom were perfectly aligned. The tweny eight green desks were in contrast with the brown big table that was the professor's one. There were four rows, each of them with seven desks composing it, but the corpse's closest desk had been slightly moved off the perfect row.

Jane pointed at that very table. On its leg, it had various red spot that marked that someone grabbed it with bloody.

"The table?" asked everyone looking straight at her.


	9. Dying Message

**DYING MESSAGE**

"It's weird. Really weird. Somehow, if you grab something, what is the movement you normally would do?" asked Nezumi.

"What?"

"When you grab something, don't you usually pull of it?"

"I see your point" commented the policewoman "you mean that 'is weird that the victim has pushed the table off him instead of pulling it against him when he had just grabbed it', isn't it?"

"That's just what I ment!"

"Wait a minute... Do you mean that this is the famous dying message?"

"At all, sir. This is just a way of getting anyone to know where the dying message is" Jane walked across the classrom and then she got down on her knees by the table. She took a deep look at it and then said "bingo!"

Everybody took a look under the desk. There were a row of bubblegums left there by some students and one of them -a blue one, the only blue gum in the row- had a blood dot on it.

The photographers took photos and the others started measuring around again.

"We gotta go back" said the officer "Sinenoc will get mad if he finds thee here."

"Okay... From now on, I must think about this message."

When they got out of the room, she looked at the suspects in the next corridor. Simon, Agatha, Kevin and Magnus... There was no clue that would mean "Blue" on their names... Besides, she thought that a message like that would be too simple.

«So, there must be another way» she thought.

They arrived at the confination room. Irina was drawing something on her notebook.

"How was it?" she asked.

"The dying message is 'blue'" answered Nezumi.

From a first thought, the kill of the teacher was rather unexpected. Jane couldn't actually think on someone hating a mere teacher up to that extreme. There was no evident motive.

She wasn't thinking clearly about it. Being in the confination room was also making her feel nervous. She started to set a rhythm with her fingers bothered by the idea of being stuck in a mystery.

"How did you get at that conclussion?" asked her fiend sweetly.

"The victim poited with one of his bloody fingers to a blue chewing gum."

"To a blue chewing gum? It is weird to see a blue gum... So, what's with it?"

"There must be something I'm not thinking of" groaned Nezumi.

"But though, I think you might be mistaken with the meaning of the dying message."

Jane stared at her friend, thinking again about the fact of the blue gum.

"How is it?" asked confused.

"If it is blue, it can also mean that the culprit is, somehow, weird... Also it can mean that the culprit is related to the chewing gums..."

Nezumi started to think deeper about that fact. She was sure that she had forgotten something extremely important, but no matter how much she wondered about it, it doesn't ring a bell.

Irina was drawing a kind of mermaid in the middle of the water, inspired by the blue, her favorite colour...

"Maybe it's the favorite colour of the culprit" Nezumi thought "No... It can't be."

Sinenoc opened the door to see whether they were still there. In that very moment, a breeze suddenly made Irina's drawing flew and it fell under the table.

"Sorry, girls. We're thinking in letting you go back home."

None of them answered nothing. Irina went down on her knees and tryed to catch the drawing after Sinenoc closed the door again.

"I'll catch this for ya." offered Nezumi.

The girl went under the table and grabbed softly the paper. She took a look at it to appreciate her friend's style and saw that the deepest blue coloured spots were looking even more darker as she was in the shadows.

She suddenly realized that the victim was in the middle of the night, so, there was no choice for him to know what colour had the chewing gum he pointed on...

So, the colour was not a relevant information... Then, there was a relevant message behind that chewing gum.

May it imply a student? The ones who left there chewing gums were the kids, but... A gum as a dying message which blames a student was a very circumstancial clue...

It could also be against the head of the cleaning service... As taking off the chewing gums was a task that was relied on the cleaning department.

The suspects that were impossible to join with the dying message were the head of studies, Kevin York, and the vicedirector, John Curtis...

"We gotta see the victim's effects" said Nezumi after a while.

"I don't think that would be possible" said the cop that was with'em.

"Oh, please, Mr. Police Officer" begged Irina.

He sighed and then answered "I'll go to see whether there are printed photographs..."

The police officer got out of the room, but before he could walf further than two steps, Sinenoc aproached, looking mad.

"What are you doing? Hadn't I told you to stay with those girls?"

The cop soon got in panic. He wasn't able to answer that, because, in fact, he had been helping them to go arond the crime scene and all the stuff.

"Sorry, mister Sinenoc" he said "I'll turn back to..."

"No. You are not going there anymore. They are going back to their respective homes right now. You can continue with the research if you want to..."

But though... The girls knew something important... The crime was about to be solved... Just a little longer...

"Em... Can I say something, Sir?"

"What?"

"They deserve solving this case, mister. They've been working hard..."

"This is not a childish game!" shouted Sinenoc.

"I-I know, Sir, but... I just thought that they knew something we didn't know and..."

Albert sighed and nodded. The police officer stared at him for few seconds.

"I see. I'll ask them about it." said Albert.

"They requested me to bring some photographs of the victim's personal effects." informed the cop.

"I got them with me. Now, leave."

The officer walked slowly looking back until Albert entered the room where the girls were waiting. He had the sort of feeling that something was wrong, and he hoped that the girls weren't in trouble.  
By the moment he entered the room, the girls sighed desperately. They were feared of being pushed apart.

"So you wanted to see the photos, huh?"  
"Sorry Sir." They both answered ag the same time, staring formally in front of him.  
"I don't know what will I do. Nor even if you are prepared enough for all of this stuff."  
"Indeed we are!" Replied Irina.  
"That might be a lie" he thought in loud voice "but I have also noticed your talent. Specially yours, Jane."

Suddenly Jane felt proud and self confident. Sinenoc showed the photos, and after a while he took a deep breath, wondering about what he had just done.

"A chewing gum?" Asked Jane.  
"Yes. We have examined it consciously, though there was no clue on it..."  
"Our Professor got used to chew gum after quitting from smoking" explained Irina. "Sometimes he even read some of the curiosities printed on the envelopes of his favourite label."  
"Curiosities?" Inquired both Jane and Sinenoc.  
"You know, some scientific or historical information like the date of the discover of the radius or the ages that a galapagus can live."  
"Is that supposed to be a clue?" Claimed Sinenoc "It's almost impossible to think about a curiosity just in the moment in which you ar being killed!"  
"Or not" argued Jane "if there's something absolutely connected to the chewing gum, this may be an important message."  
"Explain yourself" orderer Sinenoc.  
"Of course, the name of the label doesn' ring a bell, but maybe we must think about a historical fact... something that has to be with the chewing gum or the label itself..."


End file.
